The Renaissance

of bread and wine, a strictly Catholic be-
lief. The Holy Spirit, in Calvinist doctrine,
could only be apprehended through the
spirit, and never through the senses; there
was no place in a Calvinist church for
graven images or human saints.

Calvin also advanced the notion of
predestination: the idea that the fate of the
soul is determined before birth, and that
worldly actions, no matter how pious or
virtuous, can do nothing to change it. The
world was made up of the visible church
and the invisible church, which included
those select individuals who were chosen
by God to follow the righteous path to
salvation and paradise. The visible church
was made up of the elect on earth, who
owed their first loyalty to their religion
and who lay above and beyond the control
of secular authorities.

Calvin believed that religious doctrine
should govern secular life. In 1559 he
founded the Academy of Geneva, to edu-
cate the young in worldly subjects with a
strong grounding in faith. Seeking to cre-
ate an ideal Christian community, he also
employed a body known as the Consistory
of Geneva as the city’s religious court and
enforcer of correct doctrine and obser-
vance. The consistory prohibited frivolous
entertainments—dancing, gambling, and
card-playing—as well as Catholic worship;
under Calvin, the consistory also had the
right to excommunicate participants,
which had once belonged to the civil au-
thorities. Calvin established four officers
of his reformed theocratic government:
ministers to preach and administer the sac-
raments; doctors to teach the citizens and
train ministers; elders who would enforce
strict regulations on morals and public be-
havior; and deacons, who oversaw the
charitable institutions such as hospitals
and poorhouses.

In Geneva Calvin preached the virtues

of thrift, sobriety, and industry. He em-

braced the economic changes sweeping

across Renaissance Europe, where a medi-

eval agrarian society was giving way to an

early industrial age in which trade and

money took precedence.

In the meantime, opponents of Cal-

vinist thought in Geneva were harshly sup-

pressed. Libertine and atheist Jacques

Gruet, who publicly berated Calvin and

satirized him in verse, was arrested, tor-

tured, and executed for heresy. The consis-

tory also tortured and executed suspected

witches. Calvin’s most notable victim was

Michael Servetus, a Spanish Anabaptist

who had sworn enemies among Catholic

and Protestant leaders. When Servetus was

recognized in Geneva attending one of

Calvin’s sermons, he was arrested. With

Calvin’s support and approval, the council

of Geneva tried him for heresy and had

him burned at the stake.

Calvin’s church gradually spread into

northern Europe through a network of

preachers, many of them French Hugue-

nots, whom he had trained and guided in

Geneva. His ultimate legacy was a harsh

and unyielding Puritan outlook that

guided its followers in their public and

private behavior, and also brought many

of its followers into open conflict with the

authorities who governed them.

SEEALSO: Luther, Martin; Zwingli, Huld-

rych

Camoes, Luis Vaz de .........................

(1524–1580)

Probably the best-known Portuguese poet

and dramatist, author ofOs Lusiades(The

Lusiades), the national epic of Portugal.

Camoes was born in Lisbon to an adven-

turer, Simao Vaz de Camoes, a member of

Camoes, Luis Vaz de